Processed food linked to depression

Researchers at University College London have said that people who eat healthy diets have a decreased risk of depression.

The study, which was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, also suggested that people who ate junk food had a higher danger of becoming depressed.

The team studied information about the food eaten by 3,500 civil servants, which they compared with the incidence of depression after five years.

The research grouped the people in the study into two sections. One section contained people who ate plenty of fruit and vegetables, while the other was made up of people who ate mostly processed foods, including sweets and fried foods.

After they had accounted for age, sex, exercise and other factors, they found that participants with the healthiest diets had 26% less danger of becoming depressed than the other group.

Study author Dr Archana Singh-Manoux said that there could possibly be another explanation caused by a "lifestyle factor" they had not considered.

"There was a paper showing a Mediterranean diet was associated with a lower risk of depression but the problem with that is if you live in Britain the likelihood of you eating a Mediterranean diet is not very high."

"So we wanted to look at bit differently at the link between diet and mental health."